Richards ‘keeps feud from children’

Denise Richards doesn’t think her children are “ready to hear certain things” about their family.

The 42-year-old actress recently relinquished custody of Charlie’s twin sons with his ex Brooke Mueller, whom she cared for temporarily while their mother visited rehab for the 21st time.

And Denise doesn’t want her and Charlie’s daughters Sam, nine, and Lola, eight, influenced at all by the bad blood.

“There’s a lot obviously I keep from them because it’s not age appropriate or they’re not ready to hear certain things, [but] some stuff we do tell,” Denise told ET Online.

“It’s hard at their age, they’re eight and nine years old, and [my adopted daughter] Eloise is obviously too young to hear anything, she’s not there yet. That’s the hardest thing when stuff like this becomes really public. I just tell them when people say things come to me first and we’ll discuss it.”

Denise reveals she is frequently harassed by paparazzi while she is out and about with her little ones.

The star says her maternal instinct kicks in instantly when she comes up against nosy photographers.

“As soon as they come up to me, I’m like, ‘Don’t say anything [in front of the girls],’ because there’s usually something going on,” Denise explained.

Denise wrote a private letter to the Los Angeles County Department of Children & Family Services that went public earlier this month. In the note she told authorities she could no longer care for Charlie and Brooke’s four-year-old sons Bob and Max due to their increasing violence.

Just weeks ago Charlie went on a Twitter tirade in which he referred to Brooke as an “evil and pathetic über loser wh*re”.

And the former couple are now embroiled in a bitter custody battle over their boys.